Seeing God’s Glory in Everyday Life
As we tell the Christmas story this year—and as our kids act out the nativity story—we will surely hear about the shepherds in the fields who heard the birth announcements from an angel.
“Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them” (Luke 2:9).
No doubt with the arrival of the angel, they got a good dose of the glory of the Lord. (And like them, I’m sure we would be terrified too.) What a wonderful picture. I can’t imagine what it would be like to experience such a grand display of the glory of God.
But I wonder how often we encounter the glory of God and don’t notice it. It’s all around us. Every day. We’ve just lost the wonder of what we see.
Think what it was like for Adam. God assigned him the task of naming the animals (Gen. 2:19). I don’t know this for sure, but I can’t imagine Adam just glancing at the animals and randomly assigning names. Isn’t it possible that he examined each one, pondering its uniqueness and characteristics? I just can’t
help but think that, as he considered each animal and gave it a fitting name, he was taken by the power and creative ability of God. He saw the incredible mind of One who could create both a stately stallion, a small snail, and the scampering squirrel. I’m convinced that Adam was moved to see the glory of God—and maybe that’s one reason God assigned him that task.
And then there’s Elihu. Eli-who? When we recount the story of Job, we often focus on Job’s three friends with the bad theology and finger-pointing (Job 2–31). We also look at when God turned the tables and questioned Job (38-41). However, sandwiched between those events was a younger man named Elihu. When we read his speech to Job, it becomes clear that Elihu studied nature around him and was moved by the power and glory of the One who created.
“Yes, God is exalted beyond our knowledge; the number of his years cannot be counted. For he makes waterdrops evaporate; they distill the rain into its mist, which the clouds pour out and shower abundantly on mankind” (36:26-28).
He saw God in it all.
“Just listen to his thunderous voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. He lets it loose beneath the entire sky; his lightning to the ends of the earth. Then there comes a roaring sound; God thunders with his majestic voice. He does not restrain the lightning when his rumbling voice is heard” (37:2-4).
Today, we live in a world that thrives on science, and we look to science to explain all these things—but who created that science?!
This Christmas, let’s rejoice in the majestic announcement of the angel. Let’s see the glory of the Lord shine as the Messiah is proclaimed. But let’s not reserve our view of God’s glory to the month of December and the children’s Christmas pageant. God’s glory is all around us.
We only need to look.
“When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place, what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him?… Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth! (Ps. 8:3-4,9).
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